Starnberger beer soon really from Starnberg?

Created: 01/25/2022, 17:01

By: Sandra Sedlmaier

Light and wheat beer from Lake Starnberg: Florian Schuh (right), owner and managing director of the Starnberg brewery, together with master brewer Sven Leindl in the brewery in Wieling.

© Andrea Jaksch

The Starnberger Brauhaus, which is currently located in the municipality of Feldafing, could become a real Starnberger Brauhaus: The company is on a property in Schorn.

If everything fits, the brewery would move but keep the Wieling location.

Schorn/Wieling

– Which company is already thinking about further expansion six months after inaugurating a new company headquarters?

The Starnberger Brauhaus, based in Wieling in the municipality of Feldafing, is in exactly this situation.

Because a plot of land in the existing Schorn commercial area in Starnberg would finally offer the opportunity to become a real Starnberg brewery, not just a brewery located on Lake Starnberg.

Managing Director Florian Schuh has expressed an interest in the post office area in Schorn.

He has one year to check whether the location meets the needs of another brewing location and a bottling plant.

It all started in 2016 in the east of Höhenrain, a stone's throw from the district border to the district of Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen.

The Starnberger brewery was built in the Am Hohenrain commercial area.

Given the beer's success, the site soon became too small, and Schuh built a new brewery in Wieling in the municipality of Feldafing.

It started production in June 2021.

70,000 hectoliters of beer can be brewed there every year, but the market could do with even more.

By the way, so does the production facility in Wieling, but there is not enough water in the municipality of Feldafing.

"We have a water problem in Wieling," says Schuh. "And we don't have enough space for the logistic side of a bottling plant." The Starnberg brewery does not yet have its own bottling plant. To date, Starnberger beer has been bottled in Hohenthann near Landshut to serve the Bavarian market. The central and northern German market is supplied via the bottling plant in the Rolinck brewery in Steinfurt in the Münsterland region. The Starnberger Brauhaus owes this connection to its partner, the Krombacher Brewery.

Schuh could set up its own bottling plant on the 41,000 square meter Schorner post office premises. "We haven't bought the site yet, we have the option and are currently examining whether it is possible to carry out the brewery expansion there," he says. The Starnberger Brauhaus has a year to do this. There is a lot to check, including whether the water and sewage supply is adequate. The city of Starnberg is also examining whether it wants to accommodate the brewery in Schorn. In the building committee meeting this Thursday, January 27, the brewery's plans are already a topic (start of the meeting: 6 p.m., Schlossberghalle).

In Wieling, water is a particular problem for the brewery.

"Our technology doesn't do what it could because there isn't enough fresh water," explains Schuh.

Production is currently going on three days a week in the summer, and five days of personnel capacity would easily be possible without going into shift work.

"The system could currently also run two to three shifts, seven days a week, and we would have more storage space for additional tanks," says Schuh.

It is quite clear to him that the water shortage in Wieling is not due to beer production.

"In general, there is a water shortage at Lake Starnberg in the summer."

Should things work out with Schorn, the brewery would not give up the Wieling site.

"We would brew the side beers there and Starnberger Hell in Starnberg," is Schuh's plan.

"Before 2025, however, we would not brew any beer in Schorn." That's how long it will take for the building regulations to be in place.

The project is financially well planned and can be managed by the brewery, says Schuh.

Despite the newly occupied new building.

That's all calculated.